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<section id="preamble">

<h1>The Comedy of Errors</h1>

<section id="dramatis-personae"><h2>Dramatis Personae</h2>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus. </li>
  <li>AEGEON, a merchant of Syracuse.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="twin brothers, and sons to Aegeon and Aemilia.">
  <li>ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group" data-description="twin brothers, and attendants on the two Antipholuses.">
  <li>DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
</ol>

<ol class="persona-group">
  <li>BALTHAZAR, a merchant</li>
  <li>ANGELO, a goldsmith.</li>
  <li>First Merchant, friend to Antipholus of Syracuse.</li>
  <li>Second Merchant, to whom Angelo is a debtor.</li>
  <li>PINCH, a schoolmaster.</li>
  <li>AEMILIA, wife to Aegeon, an abbess at Ephesus.</li>
  <li>ADRIANA, wife to Antipholus of Ephesus.</li>
  <li>LUCIANA, her sister.</li>
  <li>LUCE, servant to Adriana.</li>
  <li>A Courtezan.</li>
  <li>Gaoler, Officers, and other Attendants</li>
</ol>

</section>

<div id="scene-description">SCENE  Ephesus.</div>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT I</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A hall in DUKE SOLINUS'S palace.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE SOLINUS, AEGEON, Gaoler, Officers, and other
Attendants</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall</li>
  <li>And by the doom of death end woes and all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Merchant of Syracuse, plead no more;</li>
  <li>I am not partial to infringe our laws:</li>
  <li class="number">The enmity and discord which of late</li>
  <li>Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke</li>
  <li>To merchants, our well-dealing countrymen,</li>
  <li>Who wanting guilders to redeem their lives</li>
  <li>Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods,</li>
  <li class="number">Excludes all pity from our threatening looks.</li>
  <li>For, since the mortal and intestine jars</li>
  <li>'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,</li>
  <li>It hath in solemn synods been decreed</li>
  <li>Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,</li>
  <li class="number">To admit no traffic to our adverse towns Nay, more,</li>
  <li>If any born at Ephesus be seen</li>
  <li>At any Syracusian marts and fairs;</li>
  <li>Again: if any Syracusian born</li>
  <li>Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies,</li>
  <li class="number">His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose,</li>
  <li>Unless a thousand marks be levied,</li>
  <li>To quit the penalty and to ransom him.</li>
  <li>Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,</li>
  <li>Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore by law thou art condemned to die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Yet this my comfort: when your words are done,</li>
  <li>My woes end likewise with the evening sun.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Well, Syracusian, say in brief the cause</li>
  <li>Why thou departed'st from thy native home</li>
  <li class="number">And for what cause thou camest to Ephesus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>A heavier task could not have been imposed</li>
  <li>Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable:</li>
  <li>Yet, that the world may witness that my end</li>
  <li>Was wrought by nature, not by vile offence,</li>
  <li class="number">I'll utter what my sorrows give me leave.</li>
  <li>In Syracusa was I born, and wed</li>
  <li>Unto a woman, happy but for me,</li>
  <li>And by me, had not our hap been bad.</li>
  <li>With her I lived in joy; our wealth increased</li>
  <li class="number">By prosperous voyages I often made</li>
  <li>To Epidamnum; till my factor's death</li>
  <li>And the great care of goods at random left</li>
  <li>Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:</li>
  <li>From whom my absence was not six months old</li>
  <li class="number">Before herself, almost at fainting under</li>
  <li>The pleasing punishment that women bear,</li>
  <li>Had made provision for her following me</li>
  <li>And soon and safe arrived where I was.</li>
  <li>There had she not been long, but she became</li>
  <li class="number">A joyful mother of two goodly sons;</li>
  <li>And, which was strange, the one so like the other,</li>
  <li>As could not be distinguish'd but by names.</li>
  <li>That very hour, and in the self-same inn,</li>
  <li>A meaner woman was delivered</li>
  <li class="number">Of such a burden, male twins, both alike:</li>
  <li>Those —  for their parents were exceeding poor —  </li>
  <li>I bought and brought up to attend my sons.</li>
  <li>My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,</li>
  <li>Made daily motions for our home return:</li>
  <li class="number">Unwilling I agreed. Alas! too soon,</li>
  <li>We came aboard.</li>
  <li>A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd,</li>
  <li>Before the always wind-obeying deep</li>
  <li>Gave any tragic instance of our harm:</li>
  <li class="number">But longer did we not retain much hope;</li>
  <li>For what obscured light the heavens did grant</li>
  <li>Did but convey unto our fearful minds</li>
  <li>A doubtful warrant of immediate death;</li>
  <li>Which though myself would gladly have embraced,</li>
  <li class="number">Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,</li>
  <li>Weeping before for what she saw must come,</li>
  <li>And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,</li>
  <li>That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,</li>
  <li>Forced me to seek delays for them and me.</li>
  <li class="number">And this it was, for other means was none:</li>
  <li>The sailors sought for safety by our boat,</li>
  <li>And left the ship, then sinking-ripe, to us:</li>
  <li>My wife, more careful for the latter-born,</li>
  <li>Had fasten'd him unto a small spare mast,</li>
  <li class="number">Such as seafaring men provide for storms;</li>
  <li>To him one of the other twins was bound,</li>
  <li>Whilst I had been like heedful of the other:</li>
  <li>The children thus disposed, my wife and I,</li>
  <li>Fixing our eyes on whom our care was fix'd,</li>
  <li class="number">Fasten'd ourselves at either end the mast;</li>
  <li>And floating straight, obedient to the stream,</li>
  <li>Was carried towards Corinth, as we thought.</li>
  <li>At length the sun, gazing upon the earth,</li>
  <li>Dispersed those vapours that offended us;</li>
  <li class="number">And by the benefit of his wished light,</li>
  <li>The seas wax'd calm, and we discovered</li>
  <li>Two ships from far making amain to us,</li>
  <li>Of Corinth that, of Epidaurus this:</li>
  <li>But ere they came —  O, let me say no more!</li>
  <li class="number">Gather the sequel by that went before.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so;</li>
  <li>For we may pity, though not pardon thee.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>O, had the gods done so, I had not now</li>
  <li>Worthily term'd them merciless to us!</li>
  <li class="number">For, ere the ships could meet by twice five leagues,</li>
  <li>We were encounterd by a mighty rock;</li>
  <li>Which being violently borne upon,</li>
  <li>Our helpful ship was splitted in the midst;</li>
  <li>So that, in this unjust divorce of us,</li>
  <li class="number">Fortune had left to both of us alike</li>
  <li>What to delight in, what to sorrow for.</li>
  <li>Her part, poor soul! seeming as burdened</li>
  <li>With lesser weight but not with lesser woe,</li>
  <li>Was carried with more speed before the wind;</li>
  <li class="number">And in our sight they three were taken up</li>
  <li>By fishermen of Corinth, as we thought.</li>
  <li>At length, another ship had seized on us;</li>
  <li>And, knowing whom it was their hap to save,</li>
  <li>Gave healthful welcome to their shipwreck'd guests;</li>
  <li class="number">And would have reft the fishers of their prey,</li>
  <li>Had not their bark been very slow of sail;</li>
  <li>And therefore homeward did they bend their course.</li>
  <li>Thus have you heard me sever'd from my bliss;</li>
  <li>That by misfortunes was my life prolong'd,</li>
  <li class="number">To tell sad stories of my own mishaps.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>And for the sake of them thou sorrowest for,</li>
  <li>Do me the favour to dilate at full</li>
  <li>What hath befall'n of them and thee till now.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care,</li>
  <li class="number">At eighteen years became inquisitive</li>
  <li>After his brother: and importuned me</li>
  <li>That his attendant — so his case was like,</li>
  <li>Reft of his brother, but retain'd his name — </li>
  <li>Might bear him company in the quest of him:</li>
  <li class="number">Whom whilst I labour'd of a love to see,</li>
  <li>I hazarded the loss of whom I loved.</li>
  <li>Five summers have I spent in furthest Greece,</li>
  <li>Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia,</li>
  <li>And, coasting homeward, came to Ephesus;</li>
  <li class="number">Hopeless to find, yet loath to leave unsought</li>
  <li>Or that or any place that harbours men.</li>
  <li>But here must end the story of my life;</li>
  <li>And happy were I in my timely death,</li>
  <li>Could all my travels warrant me they live.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li class="number">Hapless AEgeon, whom the fates have mark'd</li>
  <li>To bear the extremity of dire mishap!</li>
  <li>Now, trust me, were it not against our laws,</li>
  <li>Against my crown, my oath, my dignity,</li>
  <li>Which princes, would they, may not disannul,</li>
  <li class="number">My soul would sue as advocate for thee.</li>
  <li>But, though thou art adjudged to the death</li>
  <li>And passed sentence may not be recall'd</li>
  <li>But to our honour's great disparagement,</li>
  <li>Yet I will favour thee in what I can.</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore, merchant, I'll limit thee this day</li>
  <li>To seek thy life by beneficial help:</li>
  <li>Try all the friends thou hast in Ephesus;</li>
  <li>Beg thou, or borrow, to make up the sum,</li>
  <li>And live; if no, then thou art doom'd to die.</li>
  <li class="number">Gaoler, take him to thy custody.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Gaoler</li>
  <li>I will, my lord.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Hopeless and helpless doth AEgeon wend,</li>
  <li>But to procrastinate his lifeless end.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  The Mart.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse, DROMIO of Syracuse,
and First Merchant</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Merchant</li>
  <li>Therefore give out you are of Epidamnum,</li>
  <li>Lest that your goods too soon be confiscate.</li>
  <li>This very day a Syracusian merchant</li>
  <li>Is apprehended for arrival here;</li>
  <li class="number">And not being able to buy out his life</li>
  <li>According to the statute of the town,</li>
  <li>Dies ere the weary sun set in the west.</li>
  <li>There is your money that I had to keep.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Go bear it to the Centaur, where we host,</li>
  <li class="number">And stay there, Dromio, till I come to thee.</li>
  <li>Within this hour it will be dinner-time:</li>
  <li>Till that, I'll view the manners of the town,</li>
  <li>Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings,</li>
  <li>And then return and sleep within mine inn,</li>
  <li class="number">For with long travel I am stiff and weary.</li>
  <li>Get thee away.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Many a man would take you at your word,</li>
  <li>And go indeed, having so good a mean.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>A trusty villain, sir, that very oft,</li>
  <li class="number">When I am dull with care and melancholy,</li>
  <li>Lightens my humour with his merry jests.</li>
  <li>What, will you walk with me about the town,</li>
  <li>And then go to my inn and dine with me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Merchant</li>
  <li>I am invited, sir, to certain merchants,</li>
  <li class="number">Of whom I hope to make much benefit;</li>
  <li>I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock,</li>
  <li>Please you, I'll meet with you upon the mart</li>
  <li>And afterward consort you till bed-time:</li>
  <li>My present business calls me from you now.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Farewell till then: I will go lose myself</li>
  <li>And wander up and down to view the city.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">First Merchant</li>
  <li>Sir, I commend you to your own content.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>He that commends me to mine own content</li>
  <li>Commends me to the thing I cannot get.</li>
  <li class="number">I to the world am like a drop of water</li>
  <li>That in the ocean seeks another drop,</li>
  <li>Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,</li>
  <li>Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself:</li>
  <li>So I, to find a mother and a brother,</li>
  <li class="number">In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Ephesus</li>
  <li>Here comes the almanac of my true date.</li>
  <li>What now? how chance thou art return'd so soon?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Return'd so soon! rather approach'd too late:</li>
  <li>The capon burns, the pig falls from the spit,</li>
  <li class="number">The clock hath strucken twelve upon the bell;</li>
  <li>My mistress made it one upon my cheek:</li>
  <li>She is so hot because the meat is cold;</li>
  <li>The meat is cold because you come not home;</li>
  <li>You come not home because you have no stomach;</li>
  <li class="number">You have no stomach having broke your fast;</li>
  <li>But we that know what 'tis to fast and pray</li>
  <li>Are penitent for your default to-day.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Stop in your wind, sir: tell me this, I pray:</li>
  <li>Where have you left the money that I gave you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">O —  sixpence, that I had o' Wednesday last</li>
  <li>To pay the saddler for my mistress' crupper?</li>
  <li>The saddler had it, sir; I kept it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I am not in a sportive humour now:</li>
  <li>Tell me, and dally not, where is the money?</li>
  <li class="number">We being strangers here, how darest thou trust</li>
  <li>So great a charge from thine own custody?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I pray you, air, as you sit at dinner:</li>
  <li>I from my mistress come to you in post;</li>
  <li>If I return, I shall be post indeed,</li>
  <li class="number">For she will score your fault upon my pate.</li>
  <li>Methinks your maw, like mine, should be your clock,</li>
  <li>And strike you home without a messenger.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Come, Dromio, come, these jests are out of season;</li>
  <li>Reserve them till a merrier hour than this.</li>
  <li class="number">Where is the gold I gave in charge to thee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>To me, sir? why, you gave no gold to me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Come on, sir knave, have done your foolishness,</li>
  <li>And tell me how thou hast disposed thy charge.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>My charge was but to fetch you from the mart</li>
  <li class="number">Home to your house, the Phoenix, sir, to dinner:</li>
  <li>My mistress and her sister stays for you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>In what safe place you have bestow'd my money,</li>
  <li>Or I shall break that merry sconce of yours</li>
  <li>That stands on tricks when I am undisposed:</li>
  <li class="number">Where is the thousand marks thou hadst of me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I have some marks of yours upon my pate,</li>
  <li>Some of my mistress' marks upon my shoulders,</li>
  <li>But not a thousand marks between you both.</li>
  <li>If I should pay your worship those again,</li>
  <li class="number">Perchance you will not bear them patiently.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Thy mistress' marks? what mistress, slave, hast thou?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Your worship's wife, my mistress at the Phoenix;</li>
  <li>She that doth fast till you come home to dinner,</li>
  <li>And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">What, wilt thou flout me thus unto my face,</li>
  <li>Being forbid? There, take you that, sir knave.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>What mean you, sir? for God's sake, hold your hands!</li>
  <li>Nay, and you will not, sir, I'll take my heels.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Upon my life, by some device or other</li>
  <li class="number">The villain is o'er-raught of all my money.</li>
  <li>They say this town is full of cozenage,</li>
  <li>As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye,</li>
  <li>Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind,</li>
  <li>Soul-killing witches that deform the body,</li>
  <li class="number">Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,</li>
  <li>And many such-like liberties of sin:</li>
  <li>If it prove so, I will be gone the sooner.</li>
  <li>I'll to the Centaur, to go seek this slave:</li>
  <li>I greatly fear my money is not safe.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT II</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Neither my husband nor the slave return'd,</li>
  <li>That in such haste I sent to seek his master!</li>
  <li>Sure, Luciana, it is two o'clock.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Perhaps some merchant hath invited him,</li>
  <li class="number">And from the mart he's somewhere gone to dinner.</li>
  <li>Good sister, let us dine and never fret:</li>
  <li>A man is master of his liberty:</li>
  <li>Time is their master, and, when they see time,</li>
  <li>They'll go or come: if so, be patient, sister.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Why should their liberty than ours be more?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Because their business still lies out o' door.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Look, when I serve him so, he takes it ill.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>O, know he is the bridle of your will.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>There's none but asses will be bridled so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Why, headstrong liberty is lash'd with woe.</li>
  <li>There's nothing situate under heaven's eye</li>
  <li>But hath his bound, in earth, in sea, in sky:</li>
  <li>The beasts, the fishes, and the winged fowls,</li>
  <li>Are their males' subjects and at their controls:</li>
  <li class="number">Men, more divine, the masters of all these,</li>
  <li>Lords of the wide world and wild watery seas,</li>
  <li>Indued with intellectual sense and souls,</li>
  <li>Of more preeminence than fish and fowls,</li>
  <li>Are masters to their females, and their lords:</li>
  <li class="number">Then let your will attend on their accords.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>This servitude makes you to keep unwed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Not this, but troubles of the marriage-bed.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>But, were you wedded, you would bear some sway.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Ere I learn love, I'll practise to obey.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">How if your husband start some other where?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Till he come home again, I would forbear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Patience unmoved! no marvel though she pause;</li>
  <li>They can be meek that have no other cause.</li>
  <li>A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,</li>
  <li class="number">We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;</li>
  <li>But were we burdened with like weight of pain,</li>
  <li>As much or more would we ourselves complain:</li>
  <li>So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee,</li>
  <li>With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me,</li>
  <li class="number">But, if thou live to see like right bereft,</li>
  <li>This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Well, I will marry one day, but to try.</li>
  <li>Here comes your man; now is your husband nigh.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Ephesus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Say, is your tardy master now at hand?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, he's at two hands with me, and that my two ears</li>
  <li>can witness.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Say, didst thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear:</li>
  <li>Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his</li>
  <li>blows; and withal so doubtfully that I could scarce</li>
  <li>understand them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>But say, I prithee, is he coming home? It seems he</li>
  <li class="number">hath great care to please his wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Horn-mad, thou villain!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I mean not cuckold-mad;</li>
  <li>But, sure, he is stark mad.</li>
  <li class="number">When I desired him to come home to dinner,</li>
  <li>He ask'd me for a thousand marks in gold:</li>
  <li>''Tis dinner-time,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he;</li>
  <li>'Your meat doth burn,' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he:</li>
  <li>'Will you come home?' quoth I; 'My gold!' quoth he.</li>
  <li class="number">'Where is the thousand marks I gave thee, villain?'</li>
  <li>'The pig,' quoth I, 'is burn'd;' 'My gold!' quoth he:</li>
  <li>'My mistress, sir' quoth I; 'Hang up thy mistress!</li>
  <li>I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Quoth who?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Quoth my master:</li>
  <li>'I know,' quoth he, 'no house, no wife, no mistress.'</li>
  <li>So that my errand, due unto my tongue,</li>
  <li>I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders;</li>
  <li>For, in conclusion, he did beat me there.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Go back again, and be new beaten home?</li>
  <li>For God's sake, send some other messenger.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And he will bless that cross with other beating:</li>
  <li class="number">Between you I shall have a holy head.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Hence, prating peasant! fetch thy master home.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Am I so round with you as you with me,</li>
  <li>That like a football you do spurn me thus?</li>
  <li>You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:</li>
  <li class="number">If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Fie, how impatience loureth in your face!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>His company must do his minions grace,</li>
  <li>Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.</li>
  <li>Hath homely age the alluring beauty took</li>
  <li class="number">From my poor cheek? then he hath wasted it:</li>
  <li>Are my discourses dull? barren my wit?</li>
  <li>If voluble and sharp discourse be marr'd,</li>
  <li>Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard:</li>
  <li>Do their gay vestments his affections bait?</li>
  <li class="number">That's not my fault: he's master of my state:</li>
  <li>What ruins are in me that can be found,</li>
  <li>By him not ruin'd? then is he the ground</li>
  <li>Of my defeatures. My decayed fair</li>
  <li>A sunny look of his would soon repair</li>
  <li class="number">But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale</li>
  <li>And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Self-harming jealousy! fie, beat it hence!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispense.</li>
  <li>I know his eye doth homage otherwhere,</li>
  <li class="number">Or else what lets it but he would be here?</li>
  <li>Sister, you know he promised me a chain;</li>
  <li>Would that alone, alone he would detain,</li>
  <li>So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!</li>
  <li>I see the jewel best enamelled</li>
  <li class="number">Will lose his beauty; yet the gold bides still,</li>
  <li>That others touch, and often touching will</li>
  <li>Wear gold: and no man that hath a name,</li>
  <li>By falsehood and corruption doth it shame.</li>
  <li>Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,</li>
  <li class="number">I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  A public place.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>The gold I gave to Dromio is laid up</li>
  <li>Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave</li>
  <li>Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out</li>
  <li>By computation and mine host's report.</li>
  <li class="number">I could not speak with Dromio since at first</li>
  <li>I sent him from the mart. See, here he comes.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Syracuse</li>
  <li>How now sir! is your merry humour alter'd?</li>
  <li>As you love strokes, so jest with me again.</li>
  <li>You know no Centaur? you received no gold?</li>
  <li class="number">Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?</li>
  <li>My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,</li>
  <li>That thus so madly thou didst answer me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What answer, sir? when spake I such a word?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Even now, even here, not half an hour since.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I did not see you since you sent me hence,</li>
  <li>Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt,</li>
  <li>And told'st me of a mistress and a dinner;</li>
  <li>For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeased.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I am glad to see you in this merry vein:</li>
  <li>What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Yea, dost thou jeer and flout me in the teeth?</li>
  <li>Think'st thou I jest? Hold, take thou that, and that.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Beating him</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Hold, sir, for God's sake! now your jest is earnest:</li>
  <li class="number">Upon what bargain do you give it me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Because that I familiarly sometimes</li>
  <li>Do use you for my fool and chat with you,</li>
  <li>Your sauciness will jest upon my love</li>
  <li>And make a common of my serious hours.</li>
  <li class="number">When the sun shines let foolish gnats make sport,</li>
  <li>But creep in crannies when he hides his beams.</li>
  <li>If you will jest with me, know my aspect,</li>
  <li>And fashion your demeanor to my looks,</li>
  <li>Or I will beat this method in your sconce.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Sconce call you it? so you would leave battering, I</li>
  <li>had rather have it a head: an you use these blows</li>
  <li>long, I must get a sconce for my head and ensconce</li>
  <li>it too; or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders.</li>
  <li>But, I pray, sir why am I beaten?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Dost thou not know?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Nothing, sir, but that I am beaten.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Shall I tell you why?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Ay, sir, and wherefore; for they say every why hath</li>
  <li>a wherefore.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Why, first —  for flouting me; and then, wherefore — </li>
  <li>For urging it the second time to me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,</li>
  <li>When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme</li>
  <li>nor reason?</li>
  <li class="number">Well, sir, I thank you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Thank me, sir, for what?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, for this something that you gave me for nothing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing for</li>
  <li>something. But say, sir, is it dinner-time?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">No, sir; I think the meat wants that I have.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>In good time, sir; what's that?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Basting.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Well, sir, then 'twill be dry.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>If it be, sir, I pray you, eat none of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Your reason?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Lest it make you choleric and purchase me another</li>
  <li>dry basting.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Well, sir, learn to jest in good time: there's a</li>
  <li>time for all things.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I durst have denied that, before you were so choleric.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>By what rule, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, by a rule as plain as the plain bald</li>
  <li>pate of father Time himself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Let's hear it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">There's no time for a man to recover his hair that</li>
  <li>grows bald by nature.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>May he not do it by fine and recovery?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig and recover the</li>
  <li>lost hair of another man.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Why is Time such a niggard of hair, being, as it is,</li>
  <li>so plentiful an excrement?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Because it is a blessing that he bestows on beasts;</li>
  <li>and what he hath scanted men in hair he hath given them in wit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Why, but there's many a man hath more hair than wit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Not a man of those but he hath the wit to lose his hair.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Why, thou didst conclude hairy men plain dealers without wit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>The plainer dealer, the sooner lost: yet he loseth</li>
  <li>it in a kind of jollity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>For what reason?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">For two; and sound ones too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Nay, not sound, I pray you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Sure ones, then.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Nay, not sure, in a thing falsing.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Certain ones then.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Name them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>The one, to save the money that he spends in</li>
  <li>trimming; the other, that at dinner they should not</li>
  <li>drop in his porridge.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>You would all this time have proved there is no</li>
  <li class="number">time for all things.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry, and did, sir; namely, no time to recover hair</li>
  <li>lost by nature.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>But your reason was not substantial, why there is no</li>
  <li>time to recover.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Thus I mend it: Time himself is bald and therefore</li>
  <li>to the world's end will have bald followers.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I knew 'twould be a bald conclusion:</li>
  <li>But, soft! who wafts us yonder?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown:</li>
  <li class="number">Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects;</li>
  <li>I am not Adriana nor thy wife.</li>
  <li>The time was once when thou unurged wouldst vow</li>
  <li>That never words were music to thine ear,</li>
  <li>That never object pleasing in thine eye,</li>
  <li class="number">That never touch well welcome to thy hand,</li>
  <li>That never meat sweet-savor'd in thy taste,</li>
  <li>Unless I spake, or look'd, or touch'd, or carved to thee.</li>
  <li>How comes it now, my husband, O, how comes it,</li>
  <li>That thou art thus estranged from thyself?</li>
  <li class="number">Thyself I call it, being strange to me,</li>
  <li>That, undividable, incorporate,</li>
  <li>Am better than thy dear self's better part.</li>
  <li>Ah, do not tear away thyself from me!</li>
  <li>For know, my love, as easy mayest thou fall</li>
  <li class="number">A drop of water in the breaking gulf,</li>
  <li>And take unmingled that same drop again,</li>
  <li>Without addition or diminishing,</li>
  <li>As take from me thyself and not me too.</li>
  <li>How dearly would it touch me to the quick,</li>
  <li class="number">Shouldst thou but hear I were licentious</li>
  <li>And that this body, consecrate to thee,</li>
  <li>By ruffian lust should be contaminate!</li>
  <li>Wouldst thou not spit at me and spurn at me</li>
  <li>And hurl the name of husband in my face</li>
  <li class="number">And tear the stain'd skin off my harlot-brow</li>
  <li>And from my false hand cut the wedding-ring</li>
  <li>And break it with a deep-divorcing vow?</li>
  <li>I know thou canst; and therefore see thou do it.</li>
  <li>I am possess'd with an adulterate blot;</li>
  <li class="number">My blood is mingled with the crime of lust:</li>
  <li>For if we too be one and thou play false,</li>
  <li>I do digest the poison of thy flesh,</li>
  <li>Being strumpeted by thy contagion.</li>
  <li>Keep then far league and truce with thy true bed;</li>
  <li class="number">I live unstain'd, thou undishonoured.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Plead you to me, fair dame? I know you not:</li>
  <li>In Ephesus I am but two hours old,</li>
  <li>As strange unto your town as to your talk;</li>
  <li>Who, every word by all my wit being scann'd,</li>
  <li class="number">Want wit in all one word to understand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Fie, brother! how the world is changed with you!</li>
  <li>When were you wont to use my sister thus?</li>
  <li>She sent for you by Dromio home to dinner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>By Dromio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">By me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>By thee; and this thou didst return from him,</li>
  <li>That he did buffet thee, and, in his blows,</li>
  <li>Denied my house for his, me for his wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Did you converse, sir, with this gentlewoman?</li>
  <li class="number">What is the course and drift of your compact?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I, sir? I never saw her till this time.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Villain, thou liest; for even her very words</li>
  <li>Didst thou deliver to me on the mart.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I never spake with her in all my life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">How can she thus then call us by our names,</li>
  <li>Unless it be by inspiration.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>How ill agrees it with your gravity</li>
  <li>To counterfeit thus grossly with your slave,</li>
  <li>Abetting him to thwart me in my mood!</li>
  <li class="number">Be it my wrong you are from me exempt,</li>
  <li>But wrong not that wrong with a more contempt.</li>
  <li>Come, I will fasten on this sleeve of thine:</li>
  <li>Thou art an elm, my husband, I a vine,</li>
  <li>Whose weakness, married to thy stronger state,</li>
  <li class="number">Makes me with thy strength to communicate:</li>
  <li>If aught possess thee from me, it is dross,</li>
  <li>Usurping ivy, brier, or idle moss;</li>
  <li>Who, all for want of pruning, with intrusion</li>
  <li>Infect thy sap and live on thy confusion.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme:</li>
  <li>What, was I married to her in my dream?</li>
  <li>Or sleep I now and think I hear all this?</li>
  <li>What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?</li>
  <li>Until I know this sure uncertainty,</li>
  <li class="number">I'll entertain the offer'd fallacy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Dromio, go bid the servants spread for dinner.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>O, for my beads! I cross me for a sinner.</li>
  <li>This is the fairy land: O spite of spites!</li>
  <li>We talk with goblins, owls and sprites:</li>
  <li class="number">If we obey them not, this will ensue,</li>
  <li>They'll suck our breath, or pinch us black and blue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Why pratest thou to thyself and answer'st not?</li>
  <li>Dromio, thou drone, thou snail, thou slug, thou sot!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I am transformed, master, am I not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I think thou art in mind, and so am I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Nay, master, both in mind and in my shape.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Thou hast thine own form.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>No, I am an ape.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>If thou art changed to aught, 'tis to an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">'Tis true; she rides me and I long for grass.</li>
  <li>'Tis so, I am an ass; else it could never be</li>
  <li>But I should know her as well as she knows me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Come, come, no longer will I be a fool,</li>
  <li>To put the finger in the eye and weep,</li>
  <li class="number">Whilst man and master laugh my woes to scorn.</li>
  <li>Come, sir, to dinner. Dromio, keep the gate.</li>
  <li>Husband, I'll dine above with you to-day</li>
  <li>And shrive you of a thousand idle pranks.</li>
  <li>Sirrah, if any ask you for your master,</li>
  <li class="number">Say he dines forth, and let no creature enter.</li>
  <li>Come, sister. Dromio, play the porter well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Am I in earth, in heaven, or in hell?</li>
  <li>Sleeping or waking? mad or well-advised?</li>
  <li>Known unto these, and to myself disguised!</li>
  <li class="number">I'll say as they say and persever so,</li>
  <li>And in this mist at all adventures go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Master, shall I be porter at the gate?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Ay; and let none enter, lest I break your pate.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Come, come, Antipholus, we dine too late.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT III</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  Before the house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, DROMIO of Ephesus,
ANGELO, and BALTHAZAR</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Good Signior Angelo, you must excuse us all;</li>
  <li>My wife is shrewish when I keep not hours:</li>
  <li>Say that I linger'd with you at your shop</li>
  <li>To see the making of her carcanet,</li>
  <li class="number">And that to-morrow you will bring it home.</li>
  <li>But here's a villain that would face me down</li>
  <li>He met me on the mart, and that I beat him,</li>
  <li>And charged him with a thousand marks in gold,</li>
  <li>And that I did deny my wife and house.</li>
  <li class="number">Thou drunkard, thou, what didst thou mean by this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Say what you will, sir, but I know what I know;</li>
  <li>That you beat me at the mart, I have your hand to show:</li>
  <li>If the skin were parchment, and the blows you gave were ink,</li>
  <li>Your own handwriting would tell you what I think.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">I think thou art an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Marry, so it doth appear</li>
  <li>By the wrongs I suffer and the blows I bear.</li>
  <li>I should kick, being kick'd; and, being at that pass,</li>
  <li>You would keep from my heels and beware of an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">You're sad, Signior Balthazar: pray God our cheer</li>
  <li>May answer my good will and your good welcome here.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHAZAR</li>
  <li>I hold your dainties cheap, sir, and your</li>
  <li>welcome dear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>O, Signior Balthazar, either at flesh or fish,</li>
  <li class="number">A table full of welcome make scarce one dainty dish.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHAZAR</li>
  <li>Good meat, sir, is common; that every churl affords.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And welcome more common; for that's nothing but words.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHAZAR</li>
  <li>Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Ay, to a niggardly host, and more sparing guest:</li>
  <li class="number">But though my cates be mean, take them in good part;</li>
  <li>Better cheer may you have, but not with better heart.</li>
  <li>But, soft! my door is lock'd. Go bid them let us in.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Maud, Bridget, Marian, Cicel, Gillian, Ginn!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  Mome, malt-horse, capon, coxcomb,</li>
  <li class="number">idiot, patch!</li>
  <li>Either get thee from the door, or sit down at the hatch.</li>
  <li>Dost thou conjure for wenches, that thou call'st</li>
  <li>for such store,</li>
  <li>When one is one too many? Go, get thee from the door.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">What patch is made our porter? My master stays in</li>
  <li>the street.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  Let him walk from whence he came, lest he</li>
  <li>catch cold on's feet.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Who talks within there? ho, open the door!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Within  Right, sir; I'll tell you when, an you tell</li>
  <li>me wherefore.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Wherefore? for my dinner: I have not dined to-day.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  Nor to-day here you must not; come again</li>
  <li>when you may.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">What art thou that keepest me out from the house I owe?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  The porter for this time, sir, and my name</li>
  <li>is Dromio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>O villain! thou hast stolen both mine office and my name.</li>
  <li>The one ne'er got me credit, the other mickle blame.</li>
  <li class="number">If thou hadst been Dromio to-day in my place,</li>
  <li>Thou wouldst have changed thy face for a name or thy</li>
  <li>name for an ass.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li>Within  What a coil is there, Dromio? who are those</li>
  <li>at the gate?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Let my master in, Luce.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li>Within  Faith, no; he comes too late;</li>
  <li>And so tell your master.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>O Lord, I must laugh!</li>
  <li>Have at you with a proverb — Shall I set in my staff?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li class="number">Within  Have at you with another; that's — When?</li>
  <li>can you tell?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  If thy name be call'd Luce — Luce, thou hast</li>
  <li>answered him well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Do you hear, you minion? you'll let us in, I hope?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li class="number">Within  I thought to have asked you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  And you said no.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>So, come, help: well struck! there was blow for blow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Thou baggage, let me in.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li>Within  Can you tell for whose sake?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Master, knock the door hard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li>Within  Let him knock till it ache.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>You'll cry for this, minion, if I beat the door down.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCE</li>
  <li>Within  What needs all that, and a pair of stocks in the town?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Within  Who is that at the door that keeps all</li>
  <li class="number">this noise?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  By my troth, your town is troubled with</li>
  <li>unruly boys.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Are you there, wife? you might have come before.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Within  Your wife, sir knave! go get you from the door.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">If you went in pain, master, this 'knave' would go sore.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Here is neither cheer, sir, nor welcome: we would</li>
  <li>fain have either.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHAZAR</li>
  <li>In debating which was best, we shall part with neither.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>They stand at the door, master; bid them welcome hither.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">There is something in the wind, that we cannot get in.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>You would say so, master, if your garments were thin.</li>
  <li>Your cake there is warm within; you stand here in the cold:</li>
  <li>It would make a man mad as a buck, to be so bought and sold.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Go fetch me something: I'll break ope the gate.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Within  Break any breaking here, and I'll break your</li>
  <li>knave's pate.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind,</li>
  <li>Ay, and break it in your face, so he break it not behind.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  It seems thou want'st breaking: out upon</li>
  <li class="number">thee, hind!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Here's too much 'out upon thee!' I pray thee,</li>
  <li>let me in.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Within  Ay, when fowls have no feathers and fish have no fin.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Well, I'll break in: go borrow me a crow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">A crow without feather? Master, mean you so?</li>
  <li>For a fish without a fin, there's a fowl without a feather;</li>
  <li>If a crow help us in, sirrah, we'll pluck a crow together.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Go get thee gone; fetch me an iron crow.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">BALTHAZAR</li>
  <li>Have patience, sir; O, let it not be so!</li>
  <li class="number">Herein you war against your reputation</li>
  <li>And draw within the compass of suspect</li>
  <li>The unviolated honour of your wife.</li>
  <li>Once this —  your long experience of her wisdom,</li>
  <li>Her sober virtue, years and modesty,</li>
  <li class="number">Plead on her part some cause to you unknown:</li>
  <li>And doubt not, sir, but she will well excuse</li>
  <li>Why at this time the doors are made against you.</li>
  <li>Be ruled by me: depart in patience,</li>
  <li>And let us to the Tiger all to dinner,</li>
  <li class="number">And about evening come yourself alone</li>
  <li>To know the reason of this strange restraint.</li>
  <li>If by strong hand you offer to break in</li>
  <li>Now in the stirring passage of the day,</li>
  <li>A vulgar comment will be made of it,</li>
  <li class="number">And that supposed by the common rout</li>
  <li>Against your yet ungalled estimation</li>
  <li>That may with foul intrusion enter in</li>
  <li>And dwell upon your grave when you are dead;</li>
  <li>For slander lives upon succession,</li>
  <li class="number">For ever housed where it gets possession.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>You have prevailed: I will depart in quiet,</li>
  <li>And, in despite of mirth, mean to be merry.</li>
  <li>I know a wench of excellent discourse,</li>
  <li>Pretty and witty; wild, and yet, too, gentle:</li>
  <li class="number">There will we dine. This woman that I mean,</li>
  <li>My wife — but, I protest, without desert — </li>
  <li>Hath oftentimes upbraided me withal:</li>
  <li>To her will we to dinner.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To Angelo</li>
  <li>Get you home</li>
  <li class="number">And fetch the chain; by this I know 'tis made:</li>
  <li>Bring it, I pray you, to the Porpentine;</li>
  <li>For there's the house: that chain will I bestow — </li>
  <li>Be it for nothing but to spite my wife — </li>
  <li>Upon mine hostess there: good sir, make haste.</li>
  <li class="number">Since mine own doors refuse to entertain me,</li>
  <li>I'll knock elsewhere, to see if they'll disdain me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I'll meet you at that place some hour hence.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Do so. This jest shall cost me some expense.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  The same.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter LUCIANA and ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>And may it be that you have quite forgot</li>
  <li>A husband's office? shall, Antipholus.</li>
  <li>Even in the spring of love, thy love-springs rot?</li>
  <li>Shall love, in building, grow so ruinous?</li>
  <li class="number">If you did wed my sister for her wealth,</li>
  <li>Then for her wealth's sake use her with more kindness:</li>
  <li>Or if you like elsewhere, do it by stealth;</li>
  <li>Muffle your false love with some show of blindness:</li>
  <li>Let not my sister read it in your eye;</li>
  <li class="number">Be not thy tongue thy own shame's orator;</li>
  <li>Look sweet, be fair, become disloyalty;</li>
  <li>Apparel vice like virtue's harbinger;</li>
  <li>Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted;</li>
  <li>Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint;</li>
  <li class="number">Be secret-false: what need she be acquainted?</li>
  <li>What simple thief brags of his own attaint?</li>
  <li>'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed</li>
  <li>And let her read it in thy looks at board:</li>
  <li>Shame hath a bastard fame, well managed;</li>
  <li class="number">Ill deeds are doubled with an evil word.</li>
  <li>Alas, poor women! make us but believe,</li>
  <li>Being compact of credit, that you love us;</li>
  <li>Though others have the arm, show us the sleeve;</li>
  <li>We in your motion turn and you may move us.</li>
  <li class="number">Then, gentle brother, get you in again;</li>
  <li>Comfort my sister, cheer her, call her wife:</li>
  <li>'Tis holy sport to be a little vain,</li>
  <li>When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Sweet mistress — what your name is else, I know not,</li>
  <li class="number">Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine —  </li>
  <li>Less in your knowledge and your grace you show not</li>
  <li>Than our earth's wonder, more than earth divine.</li>
  <li>Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak;</li>
  <li>Lay open to my earthy-gross conceit,</li>
  <li class="number">Smother'd in errors, feeble, shallow, weak,</li>
  <li>The folded meaning of your words' deceit.</li>
  <li>Against my soul's pure truth why labour you</li>
  <li>To make it wander in an unknown field?</li>
  <li>Are you a god? would you create me new?</li>
  <li class="number">Transform me then, and to your power I'll yield.</li>
  <li>But if that I am I, then well I know</li>
  <li>Your weeping sister is no wife of mine,</li>
  <li>Nor to her bed no homage do I owe</li>
  <li>Far more, far more to you do I decline.</li>
  <li class="number">O, train me not, sweet mermaid, with thy note,</li>
  <li>To drown me in thy sister's flood of tears:</li>
  <li>Sing, siren, for thyself and I will dote:</li>
  <li>Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs,</li>
  <li>And as a bed I'll take them and there lie,</li>
  <li class="number">And in that glorious supposition think</li>
  <li>He gains by death that hath such means to die:</li>
  <li>Let Love, being light, be drowned if she sink!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>What, are you mad, that you do reason so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Not mad, but mated; how, I do not know.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">It is a fault that springeth from your eye.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>For gazing on your beams, fair sun, being by.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Gaze where you should, and that will clear your sight.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>As good to wink, sweet love, as look on night.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Why call you me love? call my sister so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Thy sister's sister.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>That's my sister.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>No;</li>
  <li>It is thyself, mine own self's better part,</li>
  <li>Mine eye's clear eye, my dear heart's dearer heart,</li>
  <li class="number">My food, my fortune and my sweet hope's aim,</li>
  <li>My sole earth's heaven and my heaven's claim.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>All this my sister is, or else should be.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Call thyself sister, sweet, for I am thee.</li>
  <li>Thee will I love and with thee lead my life:</li>
  <li class="number">Thou hast no husband yet nor I no wife.</li>
  <li>Give me thy hand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>O, soft, air! hold you still:</li>
  <li>I'll fetch my sister, to get her good will.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Why, how now, Dromio! where runn'st thou so fast?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Do you know me, sir? am I Dromio? am I your man?</li>
  <li>am I myself?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Thou art Dromio, thou art my man, thou art thyself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I am an ass, I am a woman's man and besides myself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, besides myself, I am due to a woman; one</li>
  <li class="number">that claims me, one that haunts me, one that will have me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What claim lays she to thee?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry sir, such claim as you would lay to your</li>
  <li>horse; and she would have me as a beast: not that, I</li>
  <li>being a beast, she would have me; but that she,</li>
  <li class="number">being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What is she?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>A very reverent body; ay, such a one as a man may</li>
  <li>not speak of without he say 'Sir-reverence.' I have</li>
  <li>but lean luck in the match, and yet is she a</li>
  <li class="number">wondrous fat marriage.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>How dost thou mean a fat marriage?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry, sir, she's the kitchen wench and all grease;</li>
  <li>and I know not what use to put her to but to make a</li>
  <li>lamp of her and run from her by her own light. I</li>
  <li class="number">warrant, her rags and the tallow in them will burn a</li>
  <li>Poland winter: if she lives till doomsday,</li>
  <li>she'll burn a week longer than the whole world.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What complexion is she of?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Swart, like my shoe, but her face nothing half so</li>
  <li class="number">clean kept: for why, she sweats; a man may go over</li>
  <li>shoes in the grime of it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>That's a fault that water will mend.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>No, sir, 'tis in grain; Noah's flood could not do it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What's her name?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Nell, sir; but her name and three quarters, that's</li>
  <li>an ell and three quarters, will not measure her from</li>
  <li>hip to hip.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Then she bears some breadth?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip:</li>
  <li class="number">she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out</li>
  <li>countries in her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>In what part of her body stands Ireland?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Marry, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Where Scotland?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I found it by the barrenness; hard in the palm of the hand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Where France?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war</li>
  <li>against her heir.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Where England?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no</li>
  <li>whiteness in them; but I guess it stood in her chin,</li>
  <li>by the salt rheum that ran between France and it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Where Spain?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Faith, I saw it not; but I felt it hot in her breath.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Where America, the Indies?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Oh, sir, upon her nose all o'er embellished with</li>
  <li>rubies, carbuncles, sapphires, declining their rich</li>
  <li>aspect to the hot breath of Spain; who sent whole</li>
  <li>armadoes of caracks to be ballast at her nose.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Where stood Belgia, the Netherlands?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Oh, sir, I did not look so low. To conclude, this</li>
  <li>drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me, call'd me</li>
  <li>Dromio; swore I was assured to her; told me what</li>
  <li>privy marks I had about me, as, the mark of my</li>
  <li class="number">shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my</li>
  <li>left arm, that I amazed ran from her as a witch:</li>
  <li>And, I think, if my breast had not been made of</li>
  <li>faith and my heart of steel,</li>
  <li>She had transform'd me to a curtal dog and made</li>
  <li class="number">me turn i' the wheel.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Go hie thee presently, post to the road:</li>
  <li>An if the wind blow any way from shore,</li>
  <li>I will not harbour in this town to-night:</li>
  <li>If any bark put forth, come to the mart,</li>
  <li class="number">Where I will walk till thou return to me.</li>
  <li>If every one knows us and we know none,</li>
  <li>'Tis time, I think, to trudge, pack and be gone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>As from a bear a man would run for life,</li>
  <li>So fly I from her that would be my wife.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">There's none but witches do inhabit here;</li>
  <li>And therefore 'tis high time that I were hence.</li>
  <li>She that doth call me husband, even my soul</li>
  <li>Doth for a wife abhor. But her fair sister,</li>
  <li>Possess'd with such a gentle sovereign grace,</li>
  <li class="number">Of such enchanting presence and discourse,</li>
  <li>Hath almost made me traitor to myself:</li>
  <li>But, lest myself be guilty to self-wrong,</li>
  <li>I'll stop mine ears against the mermaid's song.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANGELO with the chain</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Master Antipholus —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Ay, that's my name.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I know it well, sir, lo, here is the chain.</li>
  <li>I thought to have ta'en you at the Porpentine:</li>
  <li>The chain unfinish'd made me stay thus long.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What is your will that I shall do with this?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">What please yourself, sir: I have made it for you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Made it for me, sir! I bespoke it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Not once, nor twice, but twenty times you have.</li>
  <li>Go home with it and please your wife withal;</li>
  <li>And soon at supper-time I'll visit you</li>
  <li class="number">And then receive my money for the chain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I pray you, sir, receive the money now,</li>
  <li>For fear you ne'er see chain nor money more.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>You are a merry man, sir: fare you well.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What I should think of this, I cannot tell:</li>
  <li class="number">But this I think, there's no man is so vain</li>
  <li>That would refuse so fair an offer'd chain.</li>
  <li>I see a man here needs not live by shifts,</li>
  <li>When in the streets he meets such golden gifts.</li>
  <li>I'll to the mart, and there for Dromio stay</li>
  <li class="number">If any ship put out, then straight away.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT IV</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A public place.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Second Merchant, ANGELO, and an Officer</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>You know since Pentecost the sum is due,</li>
  <li>And since I have not much importuned you;</li>
  <li>Nor now I had not, but that I am bound</li>
  <li>To Persia, and want guilders for my voyage:</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore make present satisfaction,</li>
  <li>Or I'll attach you by this officer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Even just the sum that I do owe to you</li>
  <li>Is growing to me by Antipholus,</li>
  <li>And in the instant that I met with you</li>
  <li class="number">He had of me a chain: at five o'clock</li>
  <li>I shall receive the money for the same.</li>
  <li>Pleaseth you walk with me down to his house,</li>
  <li>I will discharge my bond and thank you too.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus
from the courtezan's</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>That labour may you save: see where he comes.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">While I go to the goldsmith's house, go thou</li>
  <li>And buy a rope's end: that will I bestow</li>
  <li>Among my wife and her confederates,</li>
  <li>For locking me out of my doors by day.</li>
  <li>But, soft! I see the goldsmith. Get thee gone;</li>
  <li class="number">Buy thou a rope and bring it home to me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I buy a thousand pound a year: I buy a rope.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>A man is well holp up that trusts to you:</li>
  <li>I promised your presence and the chain;</li>
  <li>But neither chain nor goldsmith came to me.</li>
  <li class="number">Belike you thought our love would last too long,</li>
  <li>If it were chain'd together, and therefore came not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Saving your merry humour, here's the note</li>
  <li>How much your chain weighs to the utmost carat,</li>
  <li>The fineness of the gold and chargeful fashion.</li>
  <li class="number">Which doth amount to three odd ducats more</li>
  <li>Than I stand debted to this gentleman:</li>
  <li>I pray you, see him presently discharged,</li>
  <li>For he is bound to sea and stays but for it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I am not furnish'd with the present money;</li>
  <li class="number">Besides, I have some business in the town.</li>
  <li>Good signior, take the stranger to my house</li>
  <li>And with you take the chain and bid my wife</li>
  <li>Disburse the sum on the receipt thereof:</li>
  <li>Perchance I will be there as soon as you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Then you will bring the chain to her yourself?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>No; bear it with you, lest I come not time enough.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Well, sir, I will. Have you the chain about you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>An if I have not, sir, I hope you have;</li>
  <li>Or else you may return without your money.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Nay, come, I pray you, sir, give me the chain:</li>
  <li>Both wind and tide stays for this gentleman,</li>
  <li>And I, to blame, have held him here too long.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Good Lord! you use this dalliance to excuse</li>
  <li>Your breach of promise to the Porpentine.</li>
  <li class="number">I should have chid you for not bringing it,</li>
  <li>But, like a shrew, you first begin to brawl.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>The hour steals on; I pray you, sir, dispatch.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>You hear how he importunes me; — the chain!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Why, give it to my wife and fetch your money.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Come, come, you know I gave it you even now.</li>
  <li>Either send the chain or send me by some token.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Fie, now you run this humour out of breath,</li>
  <li>where's the chain? I pray you, let me see it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>My business cannot brook this dalliance.</li>
  <li class="number">Good sir, say whether you'll answer me or no:</li>
  <li>If not, I'll leave him to the officer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I answer you! what should I answer you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>The money that you owe me for the chain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I owe you none till I receive the chain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">You know I gave it you half an hour since.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>You gave me none: you wrong me much to say so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>You wrong me more, sir, in denying it:</li>
  <li>Consider how it stands upon my credit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>Well, officer, arrest him at my suit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li class="number">I do; and charge you in the duke's name to obey me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>This touches me in reputation.</li>
  <li>Either consent to pay this sum for me</li>
  <li>Or I attach you by this officer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Consent to pay thee that I never had!</li>
  <li class="number">Arrest me, foolish fellow, if thou darest.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Here is thy fee; arrest him, officer,</li>
  <li>I would not spare my brother in this case,</li>
  <li>If he should scorn me so apparently.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>I do arrest you, sir: you hear the suit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">I do obey thee till I give thee bail.</li>
  <li>But, sirrah, you shall buy this sport as dear</li>
  <li>As all the metal in your shop will answer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>Sir, sir, I will have law in Ephesus,</li>
  <li>To your notorious shame; I doubt it not.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Syracuse, from the bay</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Master, there is a bark of Epidamnum</li>
  <li>That stays but till her owner comes aboard,</li>
  <li>And then, sir, she bears away. Our fraughtage, sir,</li>
  <li>I have convey'd aboard; and I have bought</li>
  <li>The oil, the balsamum and aqua-vitae.</li>
  <li class="number">The ship is in her trim; the merry wind</li>
  <li>Blows fair from land: they stay for nought at all</li>
  <li>But for their owner, master, and yourself.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>How now! a madman! Why, thou peevish sheep,</li>
  <li>What ship of Epidamnum stays for me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">A ship you sent me to, to hire waftage.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Thou drunken slave, I sent thee for a rope;</li>
  <li>And told thee to what purpose and what end.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>You sent me for a rope's end as soon:</li>
  <li>You sent me to the bay, sir, for a bark.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">I will debate this matter at more leisure</li>
  <li>And teach your ears to list me with more heed.</li>
  <li>To Adriana, villain, hie thee straight:</li>
  <li>Give her this key, and tell her, in the desk</li>
  <li>That's cover'd o'er with Turkish tapestry,</li>
  <li class="number">There is a purse of ducats; let her send it:</li>
  <li>Tell her I am arrested in the street</li>
  <li>And that shall bail me; hie thee, slave, be gone!</li>
  <li>On, officer, to prison till it come.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Second Merchant, Angelo, Officer, and
Antipholus of Ephesus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>To Adriana! that is where we dined,</li>
  <li class="number">Where Dowsabel did claim me for her husband:</li>
  <li>She is too big, I hope, for me to compass.</li>
  <li>Thither I must, although against my will,</li>
  <li>For servants must their masters' minds fulfil.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE II.  The house of ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ADRIANA and LUCIANA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Ah, Luciana, did he tempt thee so?</li>
  <li>Mightst thou perceive austerely in his eye</li>
  <li>That he did plead in earnest? yea or no?</li>
  <li>Look'd he or red or pale, or sad or merrily?</li>
  <li class="number">What observation madest thou in this case</li>
  <li>Of his heart's meteors tilting in his face?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>First he denied you had in him no right.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>He meant he did me none; the more my spite.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Then swore he that he was a stranger here.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">And true he swore, though yet forsworn he were.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Then pleaded I for you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>And what said he?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>That love I begg'd for you he begg'd of me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>With what persuasion did he tempt thy love?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">With words that in an honest suit might move.</li>
  <li>First he did praise my beauty, then my speech.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Didst speak him fair?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Have patience, I beseech.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>I cannot, nor I will not, hold me still;</li>
  <li class="number">My tongue, though not my heart, shall have his will.</li>
  <li>He is deformed, crooked, old and sere,</li>
  <li>Ill-faced, worse bodied, shapeless everywhere;</li>
  <li>Vicious, ungentle, foolish, blunt, unkind;</li>
  <li>Stigmatical in making, worse in mind.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Who would be jealous then of such a one?</li>
  <li>No evil lost is wail'd when it is gone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Ah, but I think him better than I say,</li>
  <li>And yet would herein others' eyes were worse.</li>
  <li>Far from her nest the lapwing cries away:</li>
  <li class="number">My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Here! go; the desk, the purse! sweet, now, make haste.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>How hast thou lost thy breath?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>By running fast.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Where is thy master, Dromio? is he well?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">No, he's in Tartar limbo, worse than hell.</li>
  <li>A devil in an everlasting garment hath him;</li>
  <li>One whose hard heart is button'd up with steel;</li>
  <li>A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough;</li>
  <li>A wolf, nay, worse, a fellow all in buff;</li>
  <li class="number">A back-friend, a shoulder-clapper, one that</li>
  <li>countermands</li>
  <li>The passages of alleys, creeks and narrow lands;</li>
  <li>A hound that runs counter and yet draws dryfoot well;</li>
  <li>One that before the judgement carries poor souls to hell.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Why, man, what is the matter?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I do not know the matter: he is 'rested on the case.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>What, is he arrested? Tell me at whose suit.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I know not at whose suit he is arrested well;</li>
  <li>But he's in a suit of buff which 'rested him, that can I tell.</li>
  <li class="number">Will you send him, mistress, redemption, the money in his desk?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Go fetch it, sister.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exit Luciana</li>
  <li>This I wonder at,</li>
  <li>That he, unknown to me, should be in debt.</li>
  <li>Tell me, was he arrested on a band?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Not on a band, but on a stronger thing;</li>
  <li>A chain, a chain! Do you not hear it ring?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>What, the chain?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>No, no, the bell: 'tis time that I were gone:</li>
  <li>It was two ere I left him, and now the clock</li>
  <li class="number">strikes one.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>The hours come back! that did I never hear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>O, yes; if any hour meet a sergeant, a' turns back for</li>
  <li>very fear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>As if Time were in debt! how fondly dost thou reason!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he's</li>
  <li>worth, to season.</li>
  <li>Nay, he's a thief too: have you not heard men say</li>
  <li>That Time comes stealing on by night and day?</li>
  <li>If Time be in debt and theft, and a sergeant in the way,</li>
  <li class="number">Hath he not reason to turn back an hour in a day?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter LUCIANA with a purse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Go, Dromio; there's the money, bear it straight;</li>
  <li>And bring thy master home immediately.</li>
  <li>Come, sister: I am press'd down with conceit — </li>
  <li>Conceit, my comfort and my injury.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE III.  A public place.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>There's not a man I meet but doth salute me</li>
  <li>As if I were their well-acquainted friend;</li>
  <li>And every one doth call me by my name.</li>
  <li>Some tender money to me; some invite me;</li>
  <li class="number">Some other give me thanks for kindnesses;</li>
  <li>Some offer me commodities to buy:</li>
  <li>Even now a tailor call'd me in his shop</li>
  <li>And show'd me silks that he had bought for me,</li>
  <li>And therewithal took measure of my body.</li>
  <li class="number">Sure, these are but imaginary wiles</li>
  <li>And Lapland sorcerers inhabit here.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Master, here's the gold you sent me for. What, have</li>
  <li>you got the picture of old Adam new-apparelled?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What gold is this? what Adam dost thou mean?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Not that Adam that kept the Paradise but that Adam</li>
  <li>that keeps the prison: he that goes in the calf's</li>
  <li>skin that was killed for the Prodigal; he that came</li>
  <li>behind you, sir, like an evil angel, and bid you</li>
  <li>forsake your liberty.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">I understand thee not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>No? why, 'tis a plain case: he that went, like a</li>
  <li>bass-viol, in a case of leather; the man, sir,</li>
  <li>that, when gentlemen are tired, gives them a sob</li>
  <li>and 'rests them; he, sir, that takes pity on decayed</li>
  <li class="number">men and gives them suits of durance; he that sets up</li>
  <li>his rest to do more exploits with his mace than a</li>
  <li>morris-pike.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>What, thou meanest an officer?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Ay, sir, the sergeant of the band, he that brings</li>
  <li class="number">any man to answer it that breaks his band; one that</li>
  <li>thinks a man always going to bed, and says, 'God</li>
  <li>give you good rest!'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Well, sir, there rest in your foolery. Is there any</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Why, sir, I brought you word an hour since that the</li>
  <li class="number">bark Expedition put forth to-night; and then were</li>
  <li>you hindered by the sergeant, to tarry for the hoy</li>
  <li>Delay. Here are the angels that you sent for to</li>
  <li>deliver you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>The fellow is distract, and so am I;</li>
  <li class="number">And here we wander in illusions:</li>
  <li>Some blessed power deliver us from hence!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter a Courtezan</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>Well met, well met, Master Antipholus.</li>
  <li>I see, sir, you have found the goldsmith now:</li>
  <li>Is that the chain you promised me to-day?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Satan, avoid! I charge thee, tempt me not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Master, is this Mistress Satan?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>It is the devil.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Nay, she is worse, she is the devil's dam; and here</li>
  <li>she comes in the habit of a light wench: and thereof</li>
  <li class="number">comes that the wenches say 'God damn me;' that's as</li>
  <li>much to say 'God make me a light wench.' It is</li>
  <li>written, they appear to men like angels of light:</li>
  <li>light is an effect of fire, and fire will burn;</li>
  <li>ergo, light wenches will burn. Come not near her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li class="number">Your man and you are marvellous merry, sir.</li>
  <li>Will you go with me? We'll mend our dinner here?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Master, if you do, expect spoon-meat; or bespeak a</li>
  <li>long spoon.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Why, Dromio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with</li>
  <li>the devil.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Avoid then, fiend! what tell'st thou me of supping?</li>
  <li>Thou art, as you are all, a sorceress:</li>
  <li>I conjure thee to leave me and be gone.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li class="number">Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner,</li>
  <li>Or, for my diamond, the chain you promised,</li>
  <li>And I'll be gone, sir, and not trouble you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Some devils ask but the parings of one's nail,</li>
  <li>A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a pin,</li>
  <li class="number">A nut, a cherry-stone;</li>
  <li>But she, more covetous, would have a chain.</li>
  <li>Master, be wise: an if you give it her,</li>
  <li>The devil will shake her chain and fright us with it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>I pray you, sir, my ring, or else the chain:</li>
  <li class="number">I hope you do not mean to cheat me so.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Avaunt, thou witch! Come, Dromio, let us go.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>'Fly pride,' says the peacock: mistress, that you know.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>Now, out of doubt Antipholus is mad,</li>
  <li>Else would he never so demean himself.</li>
  <li class="number">A ring he hath of mine worth forty ducats,</li>
  <li>And for the same he promised me a chain:</li>
  <li>Both one and other he denies me now.</li>
  <li>The reason that I gather he is mad,</li>
  <li>Besides this present instance of his rage,</li>
  <li class="number">Is a mad tale he told to-day at dinner,</li>
  <li>Of his own doors being shut against his entrance.</li>
  <li>Belike his wife, acquainted with his fits,</li>
  <li>On purpose shut the doors against his way.</li>
  <li>My way is now to hie home to his house,</li>
  <li class="number">And tell his wife that, being lunatic,</li>
  <li>He rush'd into my house and took perforce</li>
  <li>My ring away. This course I fittest choose;</li>
  <li>For forty ducats is too much to lose.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

</section>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE IV.  A street.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and the Officer</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Fear me not, man; I will not break away:</li>
  <li>I'll give thee, ere I leave thee, so much money,</li>
  <li>To warrant thee, as I am 'rested for.</li>
  <li>My wife is in a wayward mood to-day,</li>
  <li class="number">And will not lightly trust the messenger</li>
  <li>That I should be attach'd in Ephesus,</li>
  <li>I tell you, 'twill sound harshly in her ears.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Enter DROMIO of Ephesus with a rope's-end</li>
  <li>Here comes my man; I think he brings the money.</li>
  <li>How now, sir! have you that I sent you for?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Here's that, I warrant you, will pay them all.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>But where's the money?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Why, sir, I gave the money for the rope.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Five hundred ducats, villain, for a rope?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I'll serve you, sir, five hundred at the rate.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">To what end did I bid thee hie thee home?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>To a rope's-end, sir; and to that end am I returned.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And to that end, sir, I will welcome you.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Beating him</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>Good sir, be patient.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Nay, 'tis for me to be patient; I am in adversity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li class="number">Good, now, hold thy tongue.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Nay, rather persuade him to hold his hands.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Thou whoreson, senseless villain!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I would I were senseless, sir, that I might not feel</li>
  <li>your blows.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">I am an ass, indeed; you may prove it by my long</li>
  <li>ears. I have served him from the hour of my</li>
  <li>nativity to this instant, and have nothing at his</li>
  <li>hands for my service but blows. When I am cold, he</li>
  <li>heats me with beating; when I am warm, he cools me</li>
  <li class="number">with beating; I am waked with it when I sleep;</li>
  <li>raised with it when I sit; driven out of doors with</li>
  <li>it when I go from home; welcomed home with it when</li>
  <li>I return; nay, I bear it on my shoulders, as a</li>
  <li>beggar wont her brat; and, I think when he hath</li>
  <li class="number">lamed me, I shall beg with it from door to door.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Come, go along; my wife is coming yonder.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, the Courtezan, and PINCH</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Mistress, 'respice finem,' respect your end; or</li>
  <li>rather, the prophecy like the parrot, 'beware the</li>
  <li>rope's-end.'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Wilt thou still talk?</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Beating him</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>How say you now? is not your husband mad?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>His incivility confirms no less.</li>
  <li>Good Doctor Pinch, you are a conjurer;</li>
  <li>Establish him in his true sense again,</li>
  <li class="number">And I will please you what you will demand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Alas, how fiery and how sharp he looks!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>Mark how he trembles in his ecstasy!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PINCH</li>
  <li>Give me your hand and let me feel your pulse.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>There is my hand, and let it feel your ear.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Striking him</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PINCH</li>
  <li class="number">I charge thee, Satan, housed within this man,</li>
  <li>To yield possession to my holy prayers</li>
  <li>And to thy state of darkness hie thee straight:</li>
  <li>I conjure thee by all the saints in heaven!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Peace, doting wizard, peace! I am not mad.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">O, that thou wert not, poor distressed soul!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>You minion, you, are these your customers?</li>
  <li>Did this companion with the saffron face</li>
  <li>Revel and feast it at my house to-day,</li>
  <li>Whilst upon me the guilty doors were shut</li>
  <li class="number">And I denied to enter in my house?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>O husband, God doth know you dined at home;</li>
  <li>Where would you had remain'd until this time,</li>
  <li>Free from these slanders and this open shame!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Dined at home! Thou villain, what sayest thou?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Sir, sooth to say, you did not dine at home.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Were not my doors lock'd up and I shut out?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Perdie, your doors were lock'd and you shut out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And did not she herself revile me there?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Sans fable, she herself reviled you there.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Did not her kitchen-maid rail, taunt, and scorn me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Certes, she did; the kitchen-vestal scorn'd you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And did not I in rage depart from thence?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>In verity you did; my bones bear witness,</li>
  <li>That since have felt the vigour of his rage.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Is't good to soothe him in these contraries?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PINCH</li>
  <li>It is no shame: the fellow finds his vein,</li>
  <li>And yielding to him humours well his frenzy.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Thou hast suborn'd the goldsmith to arrest me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Alas, I sent you money to redeem you,</li>
  <li class="number">By Dromio here, who came in haste for it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Money by me! heart and goodwill you might;</li>
  <li>But surely master, not a rag of money.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Went'st not thou to her for a purse of ducats?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>He came to me and I deliver'd it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">And I am witness with her that she did.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>God and the rope-maker bear me witness</li>
  <li>That I was sent for nothing but a rope!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PINCH</li>
  <li>Mistress, both man and master is possess'd;</li>
  <li>I know it by their pale and deadly looks:</li>
  <li class="number">They must be bound and laid in some dark room.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Say, wherefore didst thou lock me forth to-day?</li>
  <li>And why dost thou deny the bag of gold?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>I did not, gentle husband, lock thee forth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And, gentle master, I received no gold;</li>
  <li class="number">But I confess, sir, that we were lock'd out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Dissembling villain, thou speak'st false in both.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Dissembling harlot, thou art false in all;</li>
  <li>And art confederate with a damned pack</li>
  <li>To make a loathsome abject scorn of me:</li>
  <li class="number">But with these nails I'll pluck out these false eyes</li>
  <li>That would behold in me this shameful sport.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter three or four, and offer to bind him.
He strives</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>O, bind him, bind him! let him not come near me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PINCH</li>
  <li>More company! The fiend is strong within him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Ay me, poor man, how pale and wan he looks!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">What, will you murder me? Thou gaoler, thou,</li>
  <li>I am thy prisoner: wilt thou suffer them</li>
  <li>To make a rescue?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>Masters, let him go</li>
  <li>He is my prisoner, and you shall not have him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">PINCH</li>
  <li class="number">Go bind this man, for he is frantic too.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">They offer to bind Dromio of Ephesus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>What wilt thou do, thou peevish officer?</li>
  <li>Hast thou delight to see a wretched man</li>
  <li>Do outrage and displeasure to himself?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>He is my prisoner: if I let him go,</li>
  <li class="number">The debt he owes will be required of me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>I will discharge thee ere I go from thee:</li>
  <li>Bear me forthwith unto his creditor,</li>
  <li>And, knowing how the debt grows, I will pay it.</li>
  <li>Good master doctor, see him safe convey'd</li>
  <li class="number">Home to my house. O most unhappy day!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>O most unhappy strumpet!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Master, I am here entered in bond for you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Out on thee, villain! wherefore dost thou mad me?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Will you be bound for nothing? be mad, good master:</li>
  <li class="number">cry 'The devil!'</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>God help, poor souls, how idly do they talk!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Go bear him hence. Sister, go you with me.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Exeunt all but Adriana, Luciana, Officer and
Courtezan</li>
  <li>Say now, whose suit is he arrested at?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>One Angelo, a goldsmith: do you know him?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">I know the man. What is the sum he owes?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>Two hundred ducats.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Say, how grows it due?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li>Due for a chain your husband had of him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>He did bespeak a chain for me, but had it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li class="number">When as your husband all in rage to-day</li>
  <li>Came to my house and took away my ring — </li>
  <li>The ring I saw upon his finger now — </li>
  <li>Straight after did I meet him with a chain.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>It may be so, but I did never see it.</li>
  <li class="number">Come, gaoler, bring me where the goldsmith is:</li>
  <li>I long to know the truth hereof at large.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse with his rapier drawn,
and DROMIO of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>God, for thy mercy! they are loose again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>And come with naked swords.</li>
  <li>Let's call more help to have them bound again.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Officer</li>
  <li class="number">Away! they'll kill us.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt all but Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio
of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I see these witches are afraid of swords.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>She that would be your wife now ran from you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Come to the Centaur; fetch our stuff from thence:</li>
  <li>I long that we were safe and sound aboard.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Faith, stay here this night; they will surely do us</li>
  <li>no harm: you saw they speak us fair, give us gold:</li>
  <li>methinks they are such a gentle nation that, but for</li>
  <li>the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of</li>
  <li>me, I could find in my heart to stay here still and</li>
  <li class="number">turn witch.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I will not stay to-night for all the town;</li>
  <li>Therefore away, to get our stuff aboard.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

</section>

</section>

<section class="act">

<h2>ACT V</h2>

<section class="scene">

<h3>SCENE I.  A street before a Priory.</h3>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter Second Merchant and ANGELO</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I am sorry, sir, that I have hinder'd you;</li>
  <li>But, I protest, he had the chain of me,</li>
  <li>Though most dishonestly he doth deny it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>How is the man esteemed here in the city?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Of very reverend reputation, sir,</li>
  <li>Of credit infinite, highly beloved,</li>
  <li>Second to none that lives here in the city:</li>
  <li>His word might bear my wealth at any time.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>Speak softly; yonder, as I think, he walks.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and DROMIO of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">'Tis so; and that self chain about his neck</li>
  <li>Which he forswore most monstrously to have.</li>
  <li>Good sir, draw near to me, I'll speak to him.</li>
  <li>Signior Antipholus, I wonder much</li>
  <li>That you would put me to this shame and trouble;</li>
  <li class="number">And, not without some scandal to yourself,</li>
  <li>With circumstance and oaths so to deny</li>
  <li>This chain which now you wear so openly:</li>
  <li>Beside the charge, the shame, imprisonment,</li>
  <li>You have done wrong to this my honest friend,</li>
  <li class="number">Who, but for staying on our controversy,</li>
  <li>Had hoisted sail and put to sea to-day:</li>
  <li>This chain you had of me; can you deny it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I think I had; I never did deny it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>Yes, that you did, sir, and forswore it too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">Who heard me to deny it or forswear it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>These ears of mine, thou know'st did hear thee.</li>
  <li>Fie on thee, wretch! 'tis pity that thou livest</li>
  <li>To walk where any honest man resort.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Thou art a villain to impeach me thus:</li>
  <li class="number">I'll prove mine honour and mine honesty</li>
  <li>Against thee presently, if thou darest stand.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>I dare, and do defy thee for a villain.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">They draw</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ADRIANA, LUCIANA, the Courtezan, and others</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Hold, hurt him not, for God's sake! he is mad.</li>
  <li>Some get within him, take his sword away:</li>
  <li class="number">Bind Dromio too, and bear them to my house.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Run, master, run; for God's sake, take a house!</li>
  <li>This is some priory. In, or we are spoil'd!</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Antipholus of Syracuse and Dromio of Syracuse
to the Priory</div>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter the Lady Abbess, AEMILIA</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Be quiet, people. Wherefore throng you hither?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>To fetch my poor distracted husband hence.</li>
  <li class="number">Let us come in, that we may bind him fast</li>
  <li>And bear him home for his recovery.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I knew he was not in his perfect wits.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>I am sorry now that I did draw on him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>How long hath this possession held the man?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">This week he hath been heavy, sour, sad,</li>
  <li>And much different from the man he was;</li>
  <li>But till this afternoon his passion</li>
  <li>Ne'er brake into extremity of rage.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Hath he not lost much wealth by wreck of sea?</li>
  <li class="number">Buried some dear friend? Hath not else his eye</li>
  <li>Stray'd his affection in unlawful love?</li>
  <li>A sin prevailing much in youthful men,</li>
  <li>Who give their eyes the liberty of gazing.</li>
  <li>Which of these sorrows is he subject to?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">To none of these, except it be the last;</li>
  <li>Namely, some love that drew him oft from home.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>You should for that have reprehended him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Why, so I did.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Ay, but not rough enough.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">As roughly as my modesty would let me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Haply, in private.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>And in assemblies too.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Ay, but not enough.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>It was the copy of our conference:</li>
  <li class="number">In bed he slept not for my urging it;</li>
  <li>At board he fed not for my urging it;</li>
  <li>Alone, it was the subject of my theme;</li>
  <li>In company I often glanced it;</li>
  <li>Still did I tell him it was vile and bad.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li class="number">And thereof came it that the man was mad.</li>
  <li>The venom clamours of a jealous woman</li>
  <li>Poisons more deadly than a mad dog's tooth.</li>
  <li>It seems his sleeps were hinder'd by thy railing,</li>
  <li>And therefore comes it that his head is light.</li>
  <li class="number">Thou say'st his meat was sauced with thy upbraidings:</li>
  <li>Unquiet meals make ill digestions;</li>
  <li>Thereof the raging fire of fever bred;</li>
  <li>And what's a fever but a fit of madness?</li>
  <li>Thou say'st his sports were hinderd by thy brawls:</li>
  <li class="number">Sweet recreation barr'd, what doth ensue</li>
  <li>But moody and dull melancholy,</li>
  <li>Kinsman to grim and comfortless despair,</li>
  <li>And at her heels a huge infectious troop</li>
  <li>Of pale distemperatures and foes to life?</li>
  <li class="number">In food, in sport and life-preserving rest</li>
  <li>To be disturb'd, would mad or man or beast:</li>
  <li>The consequence is then thy jealous fits</li>
  <li>Have scared thy husband from the use of wits.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>She never reprehended him but mildly,</li>
  <li class="number">When he demean'd himself rough, rude and wildly.</li>
  <li>Why bear you these rebukes and answer not?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>She did betray me to my own reproof.</li>
  <li>Good people enter and lay hold on him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>No, not a creature enters in my house.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Then let your servants bring my husband forth.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Neither: he took this place for sanctuary,</li>
  <li>And it shall privilege him from your hands</li>
  <li>Till I have brought him to his wits again,</li>
  <li>Or lose my labour in assaying it.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">I will attend my husband, be his nurse,</li>
  <li>Diet his sickness, for it is my office,</li>
  <li>And will have no attorney but myself;</li>
  <li>And therefore let me have him home with me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Be patient; for I will not let him stir</li>
  <li class="number">Till I have used the approved means I have,</li>
  <li>With wholesome syrups, drugs and holy prayers,</li>
  <li>To make of him a formal man again:</li>
  <li>It is a branch and parcel of mine oath,</li>
  <li>A charitable duty of my order.</li>
  <li class="number">Therefore depart and leave him here with me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>I will not hence and leave my husband here:</li>
  <li>And ill it doth beseem your holiness</li>
  <li>To separate the husband and the wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Be quiet and depart: thou shalt not have him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Complain unto the duke of this indignity.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Come, go: I will fall prostrate at his feet</li>
  <li>And never rise until my tears and prayers</li>
  <li>Have won his grace to come in person hither</li>
  <li>And take perforce my husband from the abbess.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li class="number">By this, I think, the dial points at five:</li>
  <li>Anon, I'm sure, the duke himself in person</li>
  <li>Comes this way to the melancholy vale,</li>
  <li>The place of death and sorry execution,</li>
  <li>Behind the ditches of the abbey here.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">Upon what cause?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>To see a reverend Syracusian merchant,</li>
  <li>Who put unluckily into this bay</li>
  <li>Against the laws and statutes of this town,</li>
  <li>Beheaded publicly for his offence.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">See where they come: we will behold his death.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Kneel to the duke before he pass the abbey.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter DUKE SOLINUS, attended; AEGEON bareheaded; with the
Headsman and other Officers</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Yet once again proclaim it publicly,</li>
  <li>If any friend will pay the sum for him,</li>
  <li>He shall not die; so much we tender him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Justice, most sacred duke, against the abbess!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>She is a virtuous and a reverend lady:</li>
  <li>It cannot be that she hath done thee wrong.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>May it please your grace, Antipholus, my husband,</li>
  <li>Whom I made lord of me and all I had,</li>
  <li class="number">At your important letters —  this ill day</li>
  <li>A most outrageous fit of madness took him;</li>
  <li>That desperately he hurried through the street,</li>
  <li>With him his bondman, all as mad as he — </li>
  <li>Doing displeasure to the citizens</li>
  <li class="number">By rushing in their houses, bearing thence</li>
  <li>Rings, jewels, any thing his rage did like.</li>
  <li>Once did I get him bound and sent him home,</li>
  <li>Whilst to take order for the wrongs I went,</li>
  <li>That here and there his fury had committed.</li>
  <li class="number">Anon, I wot not by what strong escape,</li>
  <li>He broke from those that had the guard of him;</li>
  <li>And with his mad attendant and himself,</li>
  <li>Each one with ireful passion, with drawn swords,</li>
  <li>Met us again and madly bent on us,</li>
  <li class="number">Chased us away; till, raising of more aid,</li>
  <li>We came again to bind them. Then they fled</li>
  <li>Into this abbey, whither we pursued them:</li>
  <li>And here the abbess shuts the gates on us</li>
  <li>And will not suffer us to fetch him out,</li>
  <li class="number">Nor send him forth that we may bear him hence.</li>
  <li>Therefore, most gracious duke, with thy command</li>
  <li>Let him be brought forth and borne hence for help.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Long since thy husband served me in my wars,</li>
  <li>And I to thee engaged a prince's word,</li>
  <li class="number">When thou didst make him master of thy bed,</li>
  <li>To do him all the grace and good I could.</li>
  <li>Go, some of you, knock at the abbey-gate</li>
  <li>And bid the lady abbess come to me.</li>
  <li>I will determine this before I stir.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter a Servant</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Servant</li>
  <li class="number">O mistress, mistress, shift and save yourself!</li>
  <li>My master and his man are both broke loose,</li>
  <li>Beaten the maids a-row and bound the doctor</li>
  <li>Whose beard they have singed off with brands of fire;</li>
  <li>And ever, as it blazed, they threw on him</li>
  <li class="number">Great pails of puddled mire to quench the hair:</li>
  <li>My master preaches patience to him and the while</li>
  <li>His man with scissors nicks him like a fool,</li>
  <li>And sure, unless you send some present help,</li>
  <li>Between them they will kill the conjurer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">Peace, fool! thy master and his man are here,</li>
  <li>And that is false thou dost report to us.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Servant</li>
  <li>Mistress, upon my life, I tell you true;</li>
  <li>I have not breathed almost since I did see it.</li>
  <li>He cries for you, and vows, if he can take you,</li>
  <li class="number">To scorch your face and to disfigure you.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">Cry within</li>
  <li>Hark, hark! I hear him, mistress. fly, be gone!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Come, stand by me; fear nothing. Guard with halberds!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Ay me, it is my husband! Witness you,</li>
  <li>That he is borne about invisible:</li>
  <li class="number">Even now we housed him in the abbey here;</li>
  <li>And now he's there, past thought of human reason.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus and DROMIO of Ephesus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Justice, most gracious duke, O, grant me justice!</li>
  <li>Even for the service that long since I did thee,</li>
  <li>When I bestrid thee in the wars and took</li>
  <li class="number">Deep scars to save thy life; even for the blood</li>
  <li>That then I lost for thee, now grant me justice.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Unless the fear of death doth make me dote,</li>
  <li>I see my son Antipholus and Dromio.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Justice, sweet prince, against that woman there!</li>
  <li class="number">She whom thou gavest to me to be my wife,</li>
  <li>That hath abused and dishonour'd me</li>
  <li>Even in the strength and height of injury!</li>
  <li>Beyond imagination is the wrong</li>
  <li>That she this day hath shameless thrown on me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li class="number">Discover how, and thou shalt find me just.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>This day, great duke, she shut the doors upon me,</li>
  <li>While she with harlots feasted in my house.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>A grievous fault! Say, woman, didst thou so?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>No, my good lord: myself, he and my sister</li>
  <li class="number">To-day did dine together. So befall my soul</li>
  <li>As this is false he burdens me withal!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">LUCIANA</li>
  <li>Ne'er may I look on day, nor sleep on night,</li>
  <li>But she tells to your highness simple truth!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>O perjured woman! They are both forsworn:</li>
  <li class="number">In this the madman justly chargeth them.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>My liege, I am advised what I say,</li>
  <li>Neither disturbed with the effect of wine,</li>
  <li>Nor heady-rash, provoked with raging ire,</li>
  <li>Albeit my wrongs might make one wiser mad.</li>
  <li class="number">This woman lock'd me out this day from dinner:</li>
  <li>That goldsmith there, were he not pack'd with her,</li>
  <li>Could witness it, for he was with me then;</li>
  <li>Who parted with me to go fetch a chain,</li>
  <li>Promising to bring it to the Porpentine,</li>
  <li class="number">Where Balthazar and I did dine together.</li>
  <li>Our dinner done, and he not coming thither,</li>
  <li>I went to seek him: in the street I met him</li>
  <li>And in his company that gentleman.</li>
  <li>There did this perjured goldsmith swear me down</li>
  <li class="number">That I this day of him received the chain,</li>
  <li>Which, God he knows, I saw not: for the which</li>
  <li>He did arrest me with an officer.</li>
  <li>I did obey, and sent my peasant home</li>
  <li>For certain ducats: he with none return'd</li>
  <li class="number">Then fairly I bespoke the officer</li>
  <li>To go in person with me to my house.</li>
  <li>By the way we met</li>
  <li>My wife, her sister, and a rabble more</li>
  <li>Of vile confederates. Along with them</li>
  <li class="number">They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain,</li>
  <li>A mere anatomy, a mountebank,</li>
  <li>A threadbare juggler and a fortune-teller,</li>
  <li>A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch,</li>
  <li>A dead-looking man: this pernicious slave,</li>
  <li class="number">Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer,</li>
  <li>And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,</li>
  <li>And with no face, as 'twere, outfacing me,</li>
  <li>Cries out, I was possess'd. Then all together</li>
  <li>They fell upon me, bound me, bore me thence</li>
  <li class="number">And in a dark and dankish vault at home</li>
  <li>There left me and my man, both bound together;</li>
  <li>Till, gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder,</li>
  <li>I gain'd my freedom, and immediately</li>
  <li>Ran hither to your grace; whom I beseech</li>
  <li class="number">To give me ample satisfaction</li>
  <li>For these deep shames and great indignities.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>My lord, in truth, thus far I witness with him,</li>
  <li>That he dined not at home, but was lock'd out.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>But had he such a chain of thee or no?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li class="number">He had, my lord: and when he ran in here,</li>
  <li>These people saw the chain about his neck.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Second Merchant</li>
  <li>Besides, I will be sworn these ears of mine</li>
  <li>Heard you confess you had the chain of him</li>
  <li>After you first forswore it on the mart:</li>
  <li class="number">And thereupon I drew my sword on you;</li>
  <li>And then you fled into this abbey here,</li>
  <li>From whence, I think, you are come by miracle.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I never came within these abbey-walls,</li>
  <li>Nor ever didst thou draw thy sword on me:</li>
  <li class="number">I never saw the chain, so help me Heaven!</li>
  <li>And this is false you burden me withal.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Why, what an intricate impeach is this!</li>
  <li>I think you all have drunk of Circe's cup.</li>
  <li>If here you housed him, here he would have been;</li>
  <li class="number">If he were mad, he would not plead so coldly:</li>
  <li>You say he dined at home; the goldsmith here</li>
  <li>Denies that saying. Sirrah, what say you?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Sir, he dined with her there, at the Porpentine.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>He did, and from my finger snatch'd that ring.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">'Tis true, my liege; this ring I had of her.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Saw'st thou him enter at the abbey here?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li>As sure, my liege, as I do see your grace.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Why, this is strange. Go call the abbess hither.</li>
  <li>I think you are all mated or stark mad.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exit one to Abbess</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li class="number">Most mighty duke, vouchsafe me speak a word:</li>
  <li>Haply I see a friend will save my life</li>
  <li>And pay the sum that may deliver me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Speak freely, Syracusian, what thou wilt.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Is not your name, sir, call'd Antipholus?</li>
  <li class="number">And is not that your bondman, Dromio?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Within this hour I was his bondman sir,</li>
  <li>But he, I thank him, gnaw'd in two my cords:</li>
  <li>Now am I Dromio and his man unbound.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>I am sure you both of you remember me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">Ourselves we do remember, sir, by you;</li>
  <li>For lately we were bound, as you are now</li>
  <li>You are not Pinch's patient, are you, sir?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Why look you strange on me? you know me well.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>O, grief hath changed me since you saw me last,</li>
  <li class="number">And careful hours with time's deformed hand</li>
  <li>Have written strange defeatures in my face:</li>
  <li>But tell me yet, dost thou not know my voice?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Neither.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Dromio, nor thou?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">No, trust me, sir, nor I.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>I am sure thou dost.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Ay, sir, but I am sure I do not; and whatsoever a</li>
  <li>man denies, you are now bound to believe him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>Not know my voice! O time's extremity,</li>
  <li class="number">Hast thou so crack'd and splitted my poor tongue</li>
  <li>In seven short years, that here my only son</li>
  <li>Knows not my feeble key of untuned cares?</li>
  <li>Though now this grained face of mine be hid</li>
  <li>In sap-consuming winter's drizzled snow,</li>
  <li class="number">And all the conduits of my blood froze up,</li>
  <li>Yet hath my night of life some memory,</li>
  <li>My wasting lamps some fading glimmer left,</li>
  <li>My dull deaf ears a little use to hear:</li>
  <li>All these old witnesses — I cannot err — </li>
  <li class="number">Tell me thou art my son Antipholus.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I never saw my father in my life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>But seven years since, in Syracusa, boy,</li>
  <li>Thou know'st we parted: but perhaps, my son,</li>
  <li>Thou shamest to acknowledge me in misery.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">The duke and all that know me in the city</li>
  <li>Can witness with me that it is not so</li>
  <li>I ne'er saw Syracusa in my life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>I tell thee, Syracusian, twenty years</li>
  <li>Have I been patron to Antipholus,</li>
  <li class="number">During which time he ne'er saw Syracusa:</li>
  <li>I see thy age and dangers make thee dote.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Re-enter AEMILIA, with ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse and
DROMIO of Syracuse</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Most mighty duke, behold a man much wrong'd.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">All gather to see them</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>I see two husbands, or mine eyes deceive me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>One of these men is Genius to the other;</li>
  <li class="number">And so of these. Which is the natural man,</li>
  <li>And which the spirit? who deciphers them?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I, sir, am Dromio; command him away.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I, sir, am Dromio; pray, let me stay.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>AEgeon art thou not? or else his ghost?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">O, my old master! who hath bound him here?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds</li>
  <li>And gain a husband by his liberty.</li>
  <li>Speak, old AEgeon, if thou be'st the man</li>
  <li>That hadst a wife once call'd AEmilia</li>
  <li class="number">That bore thee at a burden two fair sons:</li>
  <li>O, if thou be'st the same AEgeon, speak,</li>
  <li>And speak unto the same AEmilia!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEGEON</li>
  <li>If I dream not, thou art AEmilia:</li>
  <li>If thou art she, tell me where is that son</li>
  <li class="number">That floated with thee on the fatal raft?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>By men of Epidamnum he and I</li>
  <li>And the twin Dromio all were taken up;</li>
  <li>But by and by rude fishermen of Corinth</li>
  <li>By force took Dromio and my son from them</li>
  <li class="number">And me they left with those of Epidamnum.</li>
  <li>What then became of them I cannot tell</li>
  <li>I to this fortune that you see me in.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Why, here begins his morning story right;</li>
  <li>These two Antipholuses, these two so like,</li>
  <li class="number">And these two Dromios, one in semblance —  </li>
  <li>Besides her urging of her wreck at sea —  </li>
  <li>These are the parents to these children,</li>
  <li>Which accidentally are met together.</li>
  <li>Antipholus, thou camest from Corinth first?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">No, sir, not I; I came from Syracuse.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>Stay, stand apart; I know not which is which.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>I came from Corinth, my most gracious lord —  </li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And I with him.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Brought to this town by that most famous warrior,</li>
  <li class="number">Duke Menaphon, your most renowned uncle.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>Which of you two did dine with me to-day?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I, gentle mistress.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li>And are not you my husband?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>No; I say nay to that.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">And so do I; yet did she call me so:</li>
  <li>And this fair gentlewoman, her sister here,</li>
  <li>Did call me brother.</li>
  <li class="stage-direction">To Luciana</li>
  <li>What I told you then,</li>
  <li>I hope I shall have leisure to make good;</li>
  <li class="number">If this be not a dream I see and hear.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>That is the chain, sir, which you had of me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>I think it be, sir; I deny it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>And you, sir, for this chain arrested me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANGELO</li>
  <li>I think I did, sir; I deny it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ADRIANA</li>
  <li class="number">I sent you money, sir, to be your bail,</li>
  <li>By Dromio; but I think he brought it not.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>No, none by me.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>This purse of ducats I received from you,</li>
  <li>And Dromio, my man, did bring them me.</li>
  <li class="number">I see we still did meet each other's man,</li>
  <li>And I was ta'en for him, and he for me,</li>
  <li>And thereupon these errors are arose.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>These ducats pawn I for my father here.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>It shall not need; thy father hath his life.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">Courtezan</li>
  <li class="number">Sir, I must have that diamond from you.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>There, take it; and much thanks for my good cheer.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">AEMELIA</li>
  <li>Renowned duke, vouchsafe to take the pains</li>
  <li>To go with us into the abbey here</li>
  <li>And hear at large discoursed all our fortunes:</li>
  <li class="number">And all that are assembled in this place,</li>
  <li>That by this sympathized one day's error</li>
  <li>Have suffer'd wrong, go keep us company,</li>
  <li>And we shall make full satisfaction.</li>
  <li>Thirty-three years have I but gone in travail</li>
  <li class="number">Of you, my sons; and till this present hour</li>
  <li>My heavy burden ne'er delivered.</li>
  <li>The duke, my husband and my children both,</li>
  <li>And you the calendars of their nativity,</li>
  <li>Go to a gossips' feast and go with me;</li>
  <li class="number">After so long grief, such festivity!</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DUKE SOLINUS</li>
  <li>With all my heart, I'll gossip at this feast.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt all but Antipholus of Syracuse, Antipholus
of Ephesus, Dromio of Syracuse and Dromio of Ephesus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Master, shall I fetch your stuff from shipboard?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Dromio, what stuff of mine hast thou embark'd?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Your goods that lay at host, sir, in the Centaur.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li class="number">He speaks to me. I am your master, Dromio:</li>
  <li>Come, go with us; we'll look to that anon:</li>
  <li>Embrace thy brother there; rejoice with him.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt Antipholus of Syracuse and Antipholus of Ephesus</div>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>There is a fat friend at your master's house,</li>
  <li>That kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner:</li>
  <li class="number">She now shall be my sister, not my wife.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother:</li>
  <li>I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth.</li>
  <li>Will you walk in to see their gossiping?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>Not I, sir; you are my elder.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li class="number">That's a question: how shall we try it?</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF SYRACUSE</li>
  <li>We'll draw cuts for the senior: till then lead thou first.</li>
</ol>

<ol class="speech">
  <li class="speaker">DROMIO OF EPHESUS</li>
  <li>Nay, then, thus:</li>
  <li>We came into the world like brother and brother;</li>
  <li>And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.</li>
</ol>

<div class="stage-direction">Exeunt</div>

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